The “foremost” task of Israel’s “economic statesmanship” is to attract private capital for investment in sound economic enterprises which would make the Jewish state a great productive force in the Middle East, Moshe Sharett, Foreign Minister of Israel, declared here this week-end at a luncheon given by the Manufacturers Association of Israel for a delegation of Israel manufacturers now visiting in the United States.

Mr. Sharett asserted that the present position of Israel is determined by the “staggering volume of immigration” which, he insisted, must go on “as long as the driving force of misery and the urge for a healthy national life persist.” The Foreign Minister also said that the Jewish state’s political system is “based on the application of the fundamental concepts of western democracy to all spheres in life.”

Abba Eban, Israel Ambassador to the U.S. and chief of its delegation to the U.N. told the 125 luncheon guests that the slogan for Israel’s battle on the economic front must be increased production. “Israel must take urgent steps to increase its agricultural production, both in order to approach self-sufficiency in food, and in order to give a sound social basis to its civilization,” he said. “In the long run, however, Israel’s standard of living will depend on the capacity of its manufacturors to produce goods of high quality and in increassing quantity.”